NOVEMBER 28, 1946

NEW YORK, Wednesday—This is the second Thanksgiving day since the war came to an end and,as I look over the year just passed, I can find it in my heart to be greatful for a number of things. In my own part of the country, at least, nature has been kind. Spring and summer and autumn have been beautiful, and the farmers have prospered. In spite of industrial troubles, employement has been high and industrial profits good.

The nation is slowly is slowly getting back on its feet. It creaks in many places but there has been progress. Men are coming out of the armed services and finding their places again in civilian life. The United Nations, the machinery which we hope will keep us at peace, is set up and functioning. We have moved very slowly towards the final peace settlement, but we can see measurable progress there as well.

In the world as a whole, there will be a little less suffering, I think, in this coming year. And as a nation, we can feel that we have contrubuted genaerously to the recovery and the relief of other nations in their time of need.

As we kneel to say our Thanksgiving prayers, we may feel truly grateful but not complacent. Nothing in the picture that we have painted over the last year can make us feel that any one of us can rest and feel secure or sattisfied.

There is still lack of understanding between management and labor, which puts our economy and that of the world in jeopardy. There are still racial and religious tensions that cause terror within the hearts of many people in our own land. In spite of the establishment of the United Nations. The organiztion is not so complete that we can count on it to enforce peace or to take over the military burdens of indivisual nations and guarantee their security. There is still no deep sence of brotherhood among nations which wipes out fear.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Day, our prayers should be for guidence and for strength to continue the long struggle for the improvement of our civilization. It will require imagination and spiritual strength to press forward for the goals which we have set for ourselves. The first steps are barely taken, and around us there are many people who council selfishness and fear.

After we have said our thanks this Thanksgiving Day, we might add a prayer that I had sent to me some time ago:

"Our Father who had hast set a restlessness in our hearts, and made us seekers after that which we can never really find; forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks to hard for us, that we be driven to Thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self pity; make us sure of the goal we cannot see, and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to the simple beauty all around us, and ourr hearts to the loveliness men hid from us because we did not try hard enough to understand them. Save us from ourselves, and show us qa vision of the world mad anew. May Thy spirit of peace and illumination so enlighten our minds that all life shall grow with new meaning and new purpose. Amen."